Doctor's Orders Read Online Free PDF

to herself out here in the peaceful evening. She walked across the road to the side of the lake, a little chilly in her evening dress, but not noticing it. She wanted to think about the doctor. She had had, like any other girl, many dreams of love, many different dreams of falling in love. She knew, when she was sensible, that it would probably happen quite differently from her dreams, if it happened at all. Perhaps she would meet a young man at a dance, or in an office where she worked, or when she was on holiday at a seaside hotel; and he would dance with her, or see her home, or invite her to a cinema; and slowly, beginning with cautious and tender hand-holding, their affair would grow. Nice, but not very romantic; probable, but not thrilling. Dreams were very different things; in dreams, one chose the man above all others and there was romance in plenty. One dreamed of meeting him suddenly, unexpectedly, of seeing him across a crowd of people and recognizing him at once: both of them recognizing in each other the one person in the whole world. Love at first sight, passionate, satisfying love that never wore thin. Dreams, dreams ... And Dr. Frederic was the stuff that dreams are made of. Diana gave herself an impatient shake, walked briskly back to the hotel, went to find A n thea, and carried her into the dining room for dinner.
    “Frightfully distinguished and handsome, wasn’t he?” asked Anthea.
    “Yes, I suppose he was,” agreed Diana.
    “And frightfully stuffy too. I shouldn’t be surprised if he is pompous and a bore.”
    “It’s rather soon to judge, isn’t it?” asked Diana. “He couldn’t be expected to approve of finding you where you were.”
    “No. I can see I shall have a struggle with him. Oh well, he isn’t near enough to interfere much, anyway, thank goodness.”
    And that was all the impact that the doctor made on Anthea. Diana was relieved. He had, apparently, made such an unexpected and terrific impact on herself, that she had rather expected other people to be similarly affected. She was sufficiently sorry, however, that he had found her wanting in her task of managing Anthea, to become very firm after dinner; insisting that after they had had coffee and read their magazines for a short time, Anthea should go to bed.
    During the days that followed, Diana tried to be equally firm, but not always with success. It was easy to see how Anthea had reached her present stage, by realizing how little care she took even now, when she was aware of danger. One of the young men in the hotel was the owner of a small but powerful motor launch, and after one ride in it over the waters of the lake, Anthea was enchanted by it and it became a daily occurrence. This would have been all right, if she had bothered to wrap up well, for it could be cold on the water, and the winds blowing off the snows could be very sharp; but she was careless about these things. One evening, when they had both retired early to bed, and Diana was enjoying the luxury of a long read in her comfortable room, Anthea lay and listened to the faint strains of the dance music coming from below; and, at last, could bear it no longer and got up and dressed and went downstairs to dance until the small hours of the morning. Diana was roused by voices in the corridor, feeling sure that one of them was Anthea’s, and, thinking that perhaps she was not feeling well, went into her room to enquire, only to meet Anthea coming in from the corridor in full regalia, her eyes sparkling and her manner suggesting that she had accepted drinks from more than one admirer.
    “Oh, don’t be a spoilsport,” was all Anthea would reply to Diana’s protests; and although, in the morning, she had the grace to be a little ashamed of herself, Diana could have no guarantee that the same tiling would not happen again. She must be more wide awake to her duties, she decided, if Anthea was not to be trusted.
    What was doubly annoying was that Diana felt that the